Useless Fingers
by LINKed up
Summary: One day. Two actions. One voting session. That was all it took for Naruto's career to end. Now he tries to simply survive in his home village and to find away to get his life back. Watch as Naruto tries to overcome his Useless Fingers.


Disclaimer: I'm only gonna write this once: I don't own it.

Useless Fingers

Chapter 1

It had been a good day for Naruto. Up to that point, he had completed a couple of D-ranks, as much as he hated them, with his team, and he was now going to spend some of that money on some ramen. Also, during said mission, he had done much better than Sasuke, at least in his own head. Just because those dogs didn't listen to him or those weeds were actually flowers doesn't mean that he didn't do better that Sasuke. The thing that everybody else didn't seem to notice was that he had technically done more work than Sasuke had done, and they had finished at the same time. Sure his kage bunshins had helped a little bit (read: done most of the work), but that was a small detail.

The fact that most everyone liked Sasuke more him did little to dampen his spirit. He was feeling good about his performance, and was going to celebrate at Ichiraku's Ramen. He ordered his ramen, and, while he waited for it to cook, described his missions (in a very biased fashion) to Ayame. After eating his lunch, he bade farewell and left for his apartment, having one of the best days in his life. But, all things must come to an end.

While he was on his way to his apartment, Naruto got the feeling that someone or something was watching him, apart from the villagers. He tried to discreetly look around and see if he could find anything out of the ordinary, but he failed at that. So, he did the next best thing and began using some maneuvers in hopes of losing his stalker. Doing so didn't help much as he simply ran himself into an alleyway. He heard the sound of someone landing behind him and turned to look. Now standing behind him was a Hyuuga nin with its byakugan activated. The Hyuuga was smirking at Naruto, and the look on his face was beginning to disconcert Naruto.

"What do you want with me?" Naruto asked.

"I want to ruin your life, gaki," the ninja spat.

That was all the warning Naruto got before the Hyuuga vanished in front of him, right before his eyes. He felt something rapidly hit his hands, more specifically his fingers, making them pulse in pain. Almost as quickly as he disappeared, the Hyuuga reappeared in the same place that he had vanished from, the smirk on his face becoming one of arrogance, pride, and malicious intentions.

"What did you do to me?" Naruto frantically asked as the pain in his fingers increased with each passing moment and began to worry him.

"Oh, nothing much. I just disrupted the pathways in your fingers, making sure that you won't be able to use anything that has to do with hand seals, unless, of course, you get help within the next couple of hours or so, but, as we both know, that wont be possible with your reputation," the Hyuuga replied flippantly, examining his nails as he spoke.

Naruto was frightened at this explaination, because it meant that he would never be a good ninja anymore. In his mind, he was as worthless in combat as a newborn child without his jutsu. In his mind, this injury, if you want to call it that, would make sure that he would never be able to be a ninja again.

"Why? Why did you do this to me!" Naruto fervently asked, his voice trembling from fear.

"Why not? It was the perfect thing to do to ruin your life, as everyone knows that you love life as a ninja before anything as, and your dream is to become the Hokage. It is only a matter of time before you are kicked out of the village, demon. I do hope that you die once you are left for dead in the forest," the Hyuuga replied evilly. And with those parting words, the Hyuuga left the alley, leaving a very frightened and worried Naruto behind.

After standing alone in the alley for a bit, Naruto remembered that he only had a couple of hours left before the damage was permanent. He then began to run as fast as he could to the hospital so he could, hopefully, get the pathways in his fingers fixed. Traveling by the roofs of the village, he managed to get the the hospital in about 15 minutes.

He jumped down from the roofs and ran through the door. He began to ask for a doctor, but no one would listen to him. He continued for about half an hour, and just when he was about to leave, a doctor came up to him and told Naruto that he would help him out. He then lead Naruto to a room so he could fix Naruto's problem.

"Can you explain to me what happened Naruto? It will be easier to treat you if I know what to look for," the doctor said with a slight smile.

Naruto then proceeded to explain all of the happenings that had led up to him being in the hospital. The doctor listened to Naruto's plight, and started to think about how he could help.

"Well Naruto, there is one thing that I can do, but it will hurt. Do you want me to do it?" the doctor asked.

"If it will allow me to continue as a ninja, then yes, I want you to do it," Naruto replied, some of his determination returning to his voice.

"Okay then. Now, it is very important that you relax through out the duration of the procedure, as it will make the whole thing go much smother," the doctor explained. He then began to do his thing with Naruto's fingers.

As the doctor had said, Naruto experienced pain through out the whole procedure, but he could still remain relaxed. It took a bit, but the procedure was finally over. The only problem that Naruto could think of was that his fingers still hurt as much, if not more, than they did before he went to the doctor. Confused, he looked down at his fingers to see if anything was wrong, and when he saw nothing out of the ordinary, he looked up at the doctor. He was surprised when the doctor had an evil smirk on his face.

"What did you do to me?" Naruto asked, his voice trembling with fear and uncertainty.

"Oh, nothing much. I just used my chakra scalpels to utterly destroy the pathways in your fingers to the point were your furry little friend won't be able to heal them for fear of blowing your hands to pieces, which I personally think would be quite funny. Basically, your pathways are now mutilated so badly that they are just small little bits. Now, you are completely incapable of using jutsu that require handseals," the doctor replied with a smirk.

Naruto was dumbstruck by the answer that he had received. He knew that the villagers hated him, but not to the extent that they would aim to completely ruin his life. His mind just couldn't comprehend that someone would actually do this to him, and it was starting to drive him crazy. "Why? Why did you do this to me?" he managed to croak out.

"Well, I guess its because I was given the perfect opportunity to do so thanks to that Hyuuga. I guess it was also because now I will be known for being the one that helped get rid of the demon of Konoha forever. It just seemed like that perfect thing for me to do," he replied before turning and leaving Naruto in the room.

After the doctor left, Naruto sat in the chair that he had sat in during the "repair" of his pathways. As he sat there, he contemplated what had happened to him. In less than one hour, his life went from amazingly good to completely awful. All of this, just because of something that he had absolutely no control over, all because he had been chosen to be the vessel of the Kyuubi.

HE then thought of what would happen to him once word spread around and people learned of what happened to him. His ninja license would be revoked, and he would then have to find a job to pay for his rent. Because of the attitude of the villagers, he probably wouldn't be able to get a job, and then he would lose his apartment. Once that happened, he would have to live on the streets until he got tossed out of the village for being a "disturbance". He sighed and left the hospital, ignoring the people in the hospital that were sneering at him with hate.

After leaving the hospital, a depressed Naruto decided to go to the Hokage to see what was going to happen to him, and to see if his predictions were going to prove to be correct. As he walked towards the Hokage Tower, he saw some of the villagers flashing handseals at him out of the corner of his eye. That simple, mocking action did just what it was intended to do, it made him angered and saddened at his predicament.

Once he reached the tower, he wasn't questioned on why he was there, as the word had obviously spread quite quickly. He was let inside the tower without a hitch, same with going to the office of the Hokage, though the secretaries and the like sneered at him and seemed to be holding back laughter. And then came the moment that he had been dreading the most, talking to the Hokage. He had been dreading it because he didn't want his predictions to come true. He knocked on the door, and the Hokage replied with a "Come in."

Naruto opened the door and walked into the office. Sarutobi was sitting at his desk, reading over some paperwork. He glanced up, and when he saw that his visitor was Naruto, he sighed and put down the piece of paperwork.

"I assume that you are here to find out what will happen to you now after what has happened to you today?" the Hokage questioned, to which Naruto nodded solemnly. "Well, I have nothing to inform you of for now, as the council needs to make a vote on it, which will happen later tonight. Tomorrow, you will be informed of the results of the meeting here in my office. Until then, I think that you should go home and rest, you are probably emotionally spent from what has happened."

Naruto then left without a word, contemplating what may happen to him and what the vote will turn out to be. In truth, he was spent emotionally, as what had happened was a big shock to his system that fellow ninjas could do such a thing to one of their own. When he got to his apartment, he went straight for his bed so he could sleep the event off. Unfortunately for him, his mind was still running in high gear, thinking of all that could happen to him from the vote with the council.

Meanwhile, at the voting room

"The issue to be voted upon tonight is the issue of what to do with one Uzumaki Naruto. As you all may or may not know, due to the actions of some of our own, he will never be able to use any ninjutsu or genjutsu again, as they require handseals. Those in favor of letting him continue as a ninja on off-duty status, raise your hands now."

Five or six hands were raised.

"Those in favor of stripping Naruto of his ninja license, raise your hands now."

The rest of the room raised their hands.

"Then it has been passed that one Uzumaki Naruto will be stripped of his status as a ninja of Konoha."

With that vote, Naruto's career as a ninja was swiftly ended.

-------

The next morning, Naruto got out of bed to go over to the Hokage Tower to find out the result of the voting. He slowly made his way there, as if he were unconsciously prolonging the result, not that he really wanted to hear it anyways. At the rate he had been walking at, it took him around an hour to reach the Tower. Once again, he was let in without any trouble. He walked up to the office of the Hokage and knocked on the door twice, waiting for permission to enter. "Come in Naruto."

When he entered the room, Sarutobi was sitting in his usual spot at his desk. He had a solemn look on his face as Naruto entered the room, and Naruto assumed the worst.

"Naruto, the Council has voted that you are to be stripped of your rank of Genin of Konohagakure no sato and be reduced to the status of a civilian. You will be given four weeks to find a replacement job for your income, and until then you will be on a pension. If you do not find a job with in the allotted time, you will have to either live on the streets or leave the village. As a result of your loss of status, I will need you to relinquish your forehead protector."

Even though he knew he would be stripped of his rank, he had somehow thought that he would be able to keep his forehead protector. It was, after all, the symbol of his greatest triumph at that time of actually graduating from the Academy. Reluctantly, Naruto untied the protector and handed it over to the Hokage.

"What about the two that did this to me? What will happen to them?" Naruto asked.

"They will be tried for treason against Konoha for attacking and disabling a fellow Konoha ninja that committed no crimes against this village. If proven guilty, they will be killed in a public execution for their crimes," replied the Hokage.

Naruto was angered at this for one simple reason: revenge. He wanted to get revenge on the two ninjas that had wronged him and ended his career. To him, it wasn't fair that he would not be the one to kill them.

"Can't we just imprison them until I am able to exact my revenge! I want to get back at those that have wronged me!"

"I am sorry Naruto, but that is how the law is written, and that is how it must be executed."

After that, Naruto decided to leave, giving a slightly angered "Ja matta" to the Hokage. He was feeling both angry and depressed, and as such he was very unstable. Angry because he felt cheated out of revenge, depressed because of his loss of status. He walked back to his apartment, thinking about what to do about his employment problem. He knew that he was going to be very hard pressed to find a job in Konoha in one month. His only hope was that he could get a decently paying job so he could actually meet the jacked up rent of his 'home'. Sighing, he trudged on, making his way through the village, thinking up a storm.

End Chapter 1

A/N: A couple months and five or so versions later, IT IS COMPLETE! God, I feel good. :D Now, I will answer what questions you might have, if I feel that it won't give away too much of the story. Also, I would like to thank Dark Syaoran for allowing me to bounce ideas off of him. This story is unbetaed, just so you know.


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